ONE NIGHT, 5 HRS COLBERT WON’T FORGET

Record-book performance 40 years ago

Nate Colbert woke up on Aug. 1, 1972, eased out of bed in his Atlanta hotel room, grabbing his lower back.

“I couldn’t straighten up,” recalled Colbert.

A slugging first baseman, Colbert departed early for treatment at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where the Padres would play the Braves in a twilight doubleheader. Trainer Angelo “Tiny” Tunis massaged Colbert’s back, applied heat and stretched the Padres’ 6-foot-2, 215-pounder.

Then Colbert grabbed a bat and walked to the plate for batting practice. He took 10 swings, all 10 balls landing in the outfield seats, seven fair, three foul.

“You gotta play today,” pushed Padres manager Don Zimmer.

“I’m in there,” said Colbert.

And there’s your backdrop to one of the most historic days in Padres history. Forty years ago Wednesday, on Aug. 1, 1972, Colbert crushed five home runs and knocked in 13 runs in a sweep of the Braves.

The five home runs tied a doubleheader record set by Colbert’s childhood hero, the Cardinals’ Stan Musial. Colbert grew up in St. Louis and as an 8-year-old was at Sportsman’s Park the day Musial hit the five homers.

The 13 RBI set a major league record, later tied by St. Louis’ Mark Whiten. Colbert added two singles. His 22 total bases is a record that still stands.

Reached in Las Vegas where he’s now retired, the 66-year-old Colbert said, “Stan Musial was my idol. I used to imitate his stance. I put number six on everything. I remember looking at my father (the day Musial hit five home runs) and saying, ‘No one will ever do that again.’ To tie him, it meant a lot.”

As you would expect, there were fascinating oddities and tidbits to Colbert’s day:

• He hit the five home runs off five pitchers;

• He had never used the bat he swung that day and would never use it again.

• In the top of the ninth of the nightcap, Colbert, due up fourth, needed a teammate to reach base in order to launch his fifth home run. With two outs, Larry Stahl delivered.

• Braves fans gave Colbert two standing ovations, one after his fourth home run and another after his fifth. Only 5,784 fans attended the Tuesday doubleheader.

Looking back four decades, Padres broadcaster Jerry Coleman, who was at the microphone that evening, said, “It was a tremendous feat.”

Colbert wasted no time in his record-breaking assault, swatting a three-run blast in his first at-bat. After singling in the third and fourth innings, Colbert hit a solo home run in the seventh. He struck out looking in the ninth.

“Great game, big guy,” Zimmer told Colbert after the first game.

Said Colbert, “I’m not done yet.”

It was a typically hot, 85-degree, humid Georgia evening. Soaked after the first game, Colbert changed uniforms.

“Don’t change. It’s bad luck,’” Colbert recalls teammates saying. “But I was so wet; I couldn’t go back out there. I showered and changed.”

The home run swing wasn’t washed down the drain. After walking in the first inning, Colbert crushed a grand slam in the second. He grounded out in the fourth, then hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

Come the top of the ninth, Colbert sat at four home runs and 11 RBI. He was due up fourth. Derrel Thomas grounded out to third base. Dave Roberts tapped back to the pitcher. In the on-deck circle, Stahl said to Colbert, “I’ve got to get on for you.”

“Why?” said Colbert. “What’s the big deal?”

Playing his role in history, Stahl grounded a single to right field.

On the mound for the Braves was a submariner, Cecil Upshaw, who had perplexed Colbert in the past.

“I never had any success against him,” said Colbert, who was 4-for-17 lifetime against Upshaw, including four strikeouts.

Rather than his traditional low-to-the-ground delivery, Upshaw tossed an overhand fastball.

“I asked him later, ‘Why did you do that?’” Colbert said. “He said, ‘You were so hot, I thought I’d surprise you with something.’”

On Upshaw’s first pitch, Colbert smacked a home run over the left-field fence. For the day, Colbert’s line read as follows: 9 at-bats, 7 runs, 7 hits, five home runs, 13 RBI.

Playing left field in the first game for the Braves and first base in the nightcap was Henry Aaron. Said baseball’s one-time home-run king that evening, “None of the five Nate hit were cheap.”

As they have often been in their 44-season existence, the ’72 Padres were bad. They finished 58-95, 36½ games behind the National League West champion Cincinnati Reds.

Colbert, though, was a legitimate slugger. His 38 home runs were second in the major leagues to Johnny Bench’s 40. His 111 RBI were fifth.

The team batted .227, 22nd out of 24 teams, and scored 488 runs, which ranked 21st. Colbert drove in 22.7 percent of the team’s runs, the highest percentage for one player in baseball history, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Said Bob Chandler, who was in his first season of broadcasting the Padres on radio, “I wonder why anybody ever pitched to him.”

The team honored Colbert when it returned from the road trip. He was given a plaque and a Cadillac El Dorado, but what most moved him was Musial being flown in for the ceremony.

“When I saw Stan Musial,” said Colbert, “I said, ‘Oh, my gosh.”

Colbert retired from baseball after the 1976 season. He still holds the Padres record with 163 home runs. He worked as a stocks and commodities broker for two years, but spent most of his post-playing career as a minor league hitting coach for the team.

He has lived in Las Vegas since 1995. He was diagnosed as a diabetic 13 years ago. He said he had a heart condition “come up” four years ago.

As for the bat Colbert used to slug those five home runs on Aug. 1, 1972, he had used it only in batting practice before that day.

“It had about 100 grains. It was ugly. It just didn’t look good,” he said.

But the ball was jumping so far off the ugly piece of wood that Colbert brought it to the plate for that first trip to the batter’s box and never let it go.

The next day, he looked for the lumber in the bat rack.

It was gone.

“I don’t know how they did it,” Colbert said. “All I know is right after the game that bat was confiscated and sent to the Hall of Fame.”

Four years ago, Colbert was honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., and set his eyes on the bat again for the first time. He swung heavy lumber back in the day, usually 35 inches long and 35 ounces heavy.

Recalling his reaction when looking at the instrument that helped make him famous, Colbert said, “Boy, that’s a big sucker.”